**TRANSCRIPT**
1233 ABC Newcastle – Jill Emberson
Monday 30 May 2011: 8:50am
JILL EMBERSON
Now to a topic that’s of particular interest to residents of Port Stephens. You might have heard this morning that they are gearing up for a class action against the Federal Government in relation to noise from the Joint Strike Fighter. When the Department of Defence announced how loud it was going to be when it arrives in 2017, it said that up to 4000 Port Stephens properties would be reclassified as noise affected. Up went the complaints and then, the suggestion of a class action.
In a nutshell, Port Stephens residents currently or likely to be impacted by jet aircraft noise are combining their concerns to take on the Commonwealth Department of Defence.
Lawyer Stephen Givannia told Aaron Kearney this morning that he considered this class action to be a novel one, because it was about the community taking on the Commonwealth. Aircraft noise in the region has been a sore point for some time, especially since the release of the revised map of land likely to be impacted by the Joint Strike Fighter. The Feds are pretty mad that the Council had approved land for development; the council argue that the Feds should have given them more info on what land was likely to be impacted.
A year ago, to this point in fact, the Member for Paterson Bob Baldwin called on the Department of Defence to buy Raymond Terrace land back that was affected by aircraft noise, or likely to be. 12 months later, Bob Baldwin, has there been any progress on that?
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well the sad reality is, there has been no progress on that or indeed promises put forward by the Labor Government going into the election.
JILL EMBERSON
And now we have the prospect, a serious prospect of action against the Federal Government.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well that’s a matter for individuals who wish to take that action. But what’s very disappointing is that 301 days ago, this Government promised to lift the ANEF that was currently affection people in Riverview Ridge, parts of Medowie, parts of Grahamstown, and replace it. Now that promise was made just before the election. Now here we are, 150 days past the end of the year, 301 days since that promise was made and still nothing has been done.
JILL EMBERSON
Yet in the recent budget we saw that the Government said that it would address the issue of aircraft noise in Port Stephens through the development of a long term plan, in conjunction with the implementation of the Joint Strike Fighter project at the RAAF Base at Williamtown.
Now if I’ve got my details right here, they’ve said that there’s this long term plan, and that it is covered in the budget.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well it sounds good to have a long term plan, but plans require action. Now Defence has already put forward a new ANEC.
JILL EMBERSON
What’s an ANEC?
BOB BALDWIN MP
An Australian Noise Exposure Concept. Now that is taking into consideration the utilisation of a new instrument landing system, has lifted a noise profile off a broad section of the community with the introduction of the Joint Strike Fighter. That document has no legal standing. What is required is for that to be made into the Australian Noise Exposure Forecast, because once that is put down, Council is able to lift that instrument on the 149 Certificate that says this property is noise affected.
Now if you have a property in Riverview Ridge or Grahamstown or Medowie or Brandy Hill or Seaham that is exempt under the new ANEC, because they’ve still got this old ANEF, your property is affected. So when you go to sell your property, people buying it will then go, “hmm I’m not going to buy that property it’s noise affected.” That won’t change until when this Government gets off their backside and delivers on the promise that they have made.
JILL EMBERSON
So you’re saying there Bob Baldwin that in your opinion, a long term plan is fairly useless, in light of the reality of current noise and noise projections and the changes in the plans.
BOB BALDWIN MP
What I’m saying is, plans are useless unless they’re enacted.
JILL EMBERSON
Yes I take that point.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Rubber actually needs to hit the road, enough of the rhetoric.
JILL EMBERSON
Yes, not just rubber on the tarmac. Bob Baldwin can you stay with us while we just catch up on the news? I think there are just a few more layers of this that are definitely worthwhile exploring.
BOB BALDWIN MP
I’d love to.
[BREAK FOR NEWS BULLETIN]
JILL EMBERSON
Just before nine I was chatting with Bob Baldwin, Member for Paterson about his call 12 months ago for the Commonwealth to acquire land near the Williamtown RAAF Base. Predictions of properties being impacted by noise from the Joint Strike Fighter is a very delicate issue for the community in the Port Stephens area.
Now I don’t know if you remember but this really caught our interest, in the lead up to the Federal election campaign, remember when Prime Minister Gillard came up to our region on her jet, I think it was the day before the vote, and there was a public meeting of 1000 people in the Save our Ears initiative. They expected the Prime Minister to drop in, but she didn’t, and that got them pretty annoyed. And from the developments to date, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still very annoyed.
Bob Baldwin has stayed with me during the course of the news, thanks for that Bob I do appreciate it.
BOB BALDWIN MP
My pleasure.
JILL EMBERSON
Yes I was just reflecting on that public meeting and people were pretty ropeable that the Prime Minster didn’t drop in.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well not only was the Prime Minister, but she had the Minister for Defence with her, and not only did they not drop in but they drove past while the meeting was going on . They preferred to go to the pub.
JILL EMBERSON
Oh yes, that did not go down well. So we’ve moved on in time since then, you’ve called for land to be acquired near the Williamtown RAAF Base but the key question, as you pointed out earlier, is that the Department of Defence has actually revised its projections of what land is likely to be impacted, what communities are likely to be impacted by noise, but that hasn’t actually been formally approved by the Federal Government.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well it hasn’t been promulgated and once the ANEC, it’s all very difficult to understand but let me put it this way: there is the plan there, version one, we’ll call it round one the ANEC, once that goes through the next stage and becomes round two, an ANEF, that becomes a document by which planning can occur, it also becomes a document councils need to observe and put on their planning certificates whether a property is noise affected or not. Areas in Brandy Hill, Seaham, large parts of Riverview Ridge, Grahamstown and Medowie are affected now because of the lacklustre efforts of this Government in lifting their game and delivering the promise made by the Prime Minister back before the election.
But then again, our Prime Minister is no stranger to breaking promises.
JILL EMBERSON
You’re saying that under the revised plan, some of those communities – the likes of Brandy Hill, Seaham and Riverview Ridge – will actually be excluded from being impacted by aircraft noise. That’s a massive difference if you own that land, in terms of its value and what you can do with it.
BOB BALDWIN MP
Well it doesn’t only affect the value; it affects the sale-ability. There are people that have not been able to sell their property, that have needed to sell for a variety of reasons, because in the market people will not buy a property that is under such levels of noise that they are not allowed to construct on those properties.
Now all I say to the Government is, you’ve come out with the ANEC, congratulations, now is the time to honour your promise which was made 301 days ago to have been enacted 150 days ago, to actually do something. The longer they leave it sitting there, the more effect it has on people’s properties and I’m urging the Government to act.
JILL EMBERSON
Bob Baldwin is my guest on 1233 ABC Newcastle, Federal Member for Paterson and I was very keen to speak to him because it is indeed 12 months since he made the request to the Federal Government to acquire land near the Williamtown RAAF Base. We’ve heard earlier this morning with Aaron Kearney that there is a class action in the makings against the Federal Government and you can’t help but be forgiven for thinking that if the Federal Government took some action we wouldn’t be wasting so much energy around this matter.
What reason could there be, and I’m asking for your usual considered opinion Bob Baldwin, that would be holding up the Defence Minister from getting his Department to promulgate this to take a whole lot of people out of agony?
BOB BALDWIN MP
Senator Feeney is the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, that’s who has been given the responsibility for this in the Parliament, he has been refusing to answer questions, refusing to allow me to come to meeting that he’s having up here to discuss this issue with my community, he’s not responding to constituents when I’ve sent through representations, or otherwise he has sent a letter to my constituent and then not let me know until weeks later.
What we’re seeing here is partisan politics entering into the fray rather than a cooperative spirit in addressing the needs and concerns of our community together. Now I sat down straight after the election when Senator Feeney was appointed and said I want to work through this together because it’s our community, Australia’s community that needs to be helped. But what we’re seeing is an exacerbation of the situation where this Government is playing party politics. But it’s going to come back and bite them on the backside because people want action and they want it now.
JILL EMBERSON
You wouldn’t think it would be that hard.
It’s good of you to spend some time with us this morning to explain the complexities and give your views on why it is where it is.
BOB BALDWIN MP
There is one last thing I need to make clear here, that these procrastinations are not the fault of our RAAF people at Williamtown, it’s at the political level in Canberra that these delays are occurring.
JILL EMBERSON
On that note Bob Baldwin thankyou for your time.
